When news first broke that Steve Jobs had died, I was on vacation, making my way back home from a day jaunt to Austin. With radio reception weak, I was streaming the BBC World Service using the Public Radio Player app on my iPhone.

The BBC report of his death was just a few sentences long, but I knew there would be many, many more words to come. The way the tech press handled Jobs' resignation as CEO just six weeks earlier had provided a glimpse at the outpouring to come upon his death.

Since then, I've been watching the reaction unfold. Everyone, it seems, has a Steve Jobs story to tell. Writers want to talk about the times they interacted with him, the lessons they learned from him, how he affected and even changed their lives. People have left shrines at Apple stores.

Most remarkable: Brian Lam's emotional apology for the way he and Gizmodo handled the now-infamous iPhone 4-prototype-lost-in-a-bar story, written with clear anguish at thewirecutter.com.

Steve Jobs indeed changed the world, and for the better. He took technology that was originally considered depersonalizing and made it very, very personal - and he did so multiple times. He created and oversaw a company that appealed to emotion as well as intellect, something rare in the technology business. Apple appeals to its most fervent customers on an almost spiritual level.

Unseemly emphasis?

As is the case with most famous people who pass away, much of what has been written about Jobs has lionized him. There have been a handful of pieces that have pointed out that he could be rude, boorish, controlling and even abusive to his employees. It has also been pointed out that Apple mirrors some of those traits, most notably the controlling part.

Of course, these things have been said before about Jobs. Journalist Dan Lyons vaulted to a new level of fame writing a blog as Fake Steve Jobs, emphasizing (and even celebrating) these negative aspects of Jobs' personality. Yet bringing this up now is seen by some as unseemly.

Most important lesson

But I think it's necessary. We need a realistic and clear picture of this man, who indeed was a giant of the technology industry and American commerce. As I wrote in my short post on my blog the night Jobs died, I think it will be a long time before we realize just how much we miss him. And by that I meant it will be a long time before we really understand his impact on personal technology, which is dramatically changing our society.

That's why I didn't want to write a "what it all means" piece last week. It felt like anything I wrote would have been too clichéd.

I do want to say this now, however. As I drove back into Houston on Wednesday night, I thought about the most important lesson to be learned from his life. I think it's this: Less is indeed more

Regular readers know that I used to be a fairly die-hard Windows user who switched to a Mac as my primary machine. I also use an iPhone and an iPad, and I'm interested in just about any product that Apple sells these days. Why? Because as I've gotten older, I've come to value simplicity. I used to be all about having unlimited choices in my computing universe, but that's actually exhausting over time. I'd rather have my technology work well and not have to worry about infinite choices and settings.

Futzing isn't really all that fun anymore; I think a lot of people feel that way.

Almost always right

For me, Steve Jobs was like a crotchety newspaper editor. The best editors are tough, merciless and have a masterful command of the language. The really great editors are also almost always right.

Like them, Steve Jobs edited technology and, as a result, made it better. And he was almost always right in the decisions he made.

I think it's good news that Jobs' minimalist vision is being adopted by the technology industry in general. Microsoft's Windows 8 is a great example of this. Even though it looks nothing like Apple's own products, its Metro interface likely wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Steve Jobs.

I'm thankful I had the opportunity to cover the Jobs era, and write about the products he shepherded from Apple. I only wish I could live another 100 years, to see where it all ultimately leads.